---- Chapter 27 Serena, free from Michael and with a small Payout, didn't waste any time. Her true, opportunistic nature asserted itself fully. The pretense of the grieving widow and devoted mother vanished. Within a week, she had pawned the last of the jewelry Michael had given her, left Mikey with a bewildered, underpaid babysitter, and was back at her old haunts - dimly lit bars and clubs, seeking out her next mark. Her contempt for Michael, for the life she'd briefly tasted and lost, was profound. She saw him as a stepping stone, a temporary means to an end that hadn't quite materialized as she'd hoped. Mikey, the child she had used as a pawn, was now an inconvenience. Meanwhile, Michael, driven by that last, irrational sliver of hope, had a breakthrough. A former disgruntled employee of Elizabeth Hayes, bribed with Michael's last few hundred dollars, gave him a lead: Kennebunkport, Maine. The Hayes family's coastal estate. He scraped together enough money for a one-way bus ticket. The journey was long, uncomfortable, a fitting penance for his ---- sins. When he finally arrived in the picturesque, wealthy enclave of Kennebunkport, the contrast between his own shabby appearance and the opulent surroundings was stark. He found the Hayes estate, a sprawling mansion set back from the road, protected by high stone walls and imposing iron gates. He stood outside, a beggar at the feast, realizing the vast social and wealth gap that had always existed between him and Liv, a gap he had foolishly believed his charm could bridge. He remembered all the times Liv had downplayed her family's wealth, the efforts she'd made to make him feel like an equal. He had repaid her kindness with betrayal and neglect. He was an outsider here, in her world, a world he had never truly belonged to, a world he had tried to conquer through deceit. The humiliation was a bitter pill. The realization of his profound loss, complete.